Nasser Asks U.N. for Restoration of ‘full Rights’ to Palestine Arabs

President Nasser of the United Arab Republic today charged that the United Nations “has forgotten its Charter and disregarded its responsibilities towards the rights of the people of Palestine.” He voiced this charge in addressing this morning’s session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mr. Nasser called for “the restoration of the full rights of the people of Palestine.” Without mentioning Israel by name during his entire speech, he said that the Arabs did not accept “the loss of Palestine.” The Palestine mandate of the League of Nations–which pledged the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine–was an “imperialist conspiracy,” he said.

“The Arab nation,” he declared, “does not accept the geographic division imposed by imperialism” on Palestine. The only solution of the Palestine problem, he said, was that the land “should return to the condition prevailing before the error was committed.”

Speaking in Arabic, Nasser told the General Assembly that his government was “ready to accept the UN Charter and its principles, the resolutions of the United Nations and its recommendations for a just settlement with the best of good will.” He gave no indication as to whether he would agree to carry out the UN Security Council resolution to keep the Suez Canal open for the passage of ships of all nations, including Israel.

SAYS PALESTINE ARABS ‘HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THEIR COUNTRY’

“In our part of the world,” Nasser told the UN Assembly, “the Arab East, the United Nations has forgotten its charter and disregarded its responsibilities towards the rights of the people of Palestine.

“Have the days and the years led to a solution of the problem? Have the people of Palestine forgotten all about their country, their land and their homes? Did the Arab nation forget the tragedy of the Arab people of Palestine against whom imperialism conspired–with a mandate from the League of Nations–taking upon itself to promise to certain groups a country belonging to another people? Since when have the mother lands of peoples been property of the imperialists, to dispose of arbitrarily and to give to others?

“Imperialism has its own logic. The logic of imperialism, as manifested in its crime against the people of Palestine, has been to break the geographical unity of the Arab world on the one hand, and on the other, to create for itself in the very heart of the Arab world a base from which to threaten the Arab peoples. I believe no stronger proof of this could be given than the conspiracy which led to the tripartite aggression against us in 1956.”

Four years ago, Nasser stated, “the aggression on Suez brought the end of unmasked imperialism and its graveyard.” Illustrating his contention that some nations have learned to enforce their own demands, he told the Assembly that the UAR had shown how successfully it could operate the Suez Canal “as a waterway for the advancement and prosperity of the world.” He made no mention of the fact that the Canal is closed to Israeli goods and shipping.

While Nasser was delivering his address, a statement was circulated here by the Society for the Prevention of World War III, charging him with engaging in “continuous incitement to hatred and unrest through press, pulpit and radio,” thereby posing “a threat to peace in the Middle East and Africa.”